Category: Florida Road Trip

a florida road trip {part three}: fort lauderdale & st. augustine

wanderessence1025 June 8, 2022

We took a road trip to South Florida in March 2022. Our itinerary included Miami, Everglades National Park, the Florida Keys, and Fort Lauderdale. On our way back home, at the northeast corner of Florida, we spent two nights in St. Augustine. This post, part three, includes Fort Lauderdale and St. Augustine (& Cocoa Beach, where I stopped before going to Miami but is between Fort Lauderdale and St. Augustine on the coast). The first two parts of our trip can be found here: a florida road trip {part one}: miami and a florida road trip {part two}: the everglades & the keys.

In Cocoa Beach, I bought beach cover-ups at Ron Jon Surf Shop. Later, we took a water taxi through Fort Lauderdale’s Inland Waterway, known as the “Venice of America,” and admired the mansions of the rich and famous. We wandered up and down Las Olas Boulevard, enjoyed dinner at Cuba Libre and happened to hit the Las Olas Oceanside Park Market on Saturday morning. We waded through the surf at Fort Lauderdale Beach. We headed north to St. Augustine, where we explored the Historic Old Town, the Castillo San Marcos National Monument, the St. Augustine Light Station and Fort Mantazas National Monument. We enjoyed a delicious lunch on the breezy rooftop of Salt Life Food Shack and saw the old Ponce de Leon Hotel that now houses Flagler College. We topped off our time in Florida at the Tini Martini Bar. On the way home, we stopped to visit Mike’s college friends, Bob and Barbara Trott, and had lunch with Sarah in Richmond.

I recommend watching on YouTube for the best experience.

Our top things to do in Fort Lauderdale, Cocoa Beach, and St. Augustine were:

8) Fort Mantazas National Monument in St. Augustine
7) Ron Jon Surf Shop in Cocoa Beach
6) Tini Martini Bar in St. Augustine
5) Castillo de San Marcos National Monument in St. Augustine
4) Historic Old Town St. Augustine and Flagler College in the old Ponce de Leon Hotel
3) Fort Lauderdale Beach and the Las Olas Oceanside Park Market
2) Las Olas Boulevard and Cuba Libre in Fort Lauderdale
1) Water taxi through the inland waterways of Fort Lauderdale, the “Venice of America”

our Florida road trip

Miami, The Everglades and Fort Lauderdale

St. Augustine

Overall, these are our top ten favorites for our entire Florida Road Trip:

10) Fort Lauderdale Beach and the Las Olas Oceanside Park Market
9) Kayaking in Big Cypress National Preserve with Shurr Adventures Kayaking & Eco Tours
8) Airboat ride through the River of Grass at Everglades National Park with our hyperbolic guide at Gator Park
7) Las Olas Boulevard and Cuba Libre in Fort Lauderdale
6) Wynwood Walls in Miami
5) Key West
4) Water taxi through the inland waterways of Fort Lauderdale, the “Venice of America”
3) South Beach – the beach itself and the Art Deco lifeguard stations, Miami
2) South Beach Art Deco Historic District, Miami
1) Calle Ocho in Little Havana, Miami

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a florida road trip {part two}: the everglades & the keys

wanderessence1025 June 1, 2022

We took a road trip to South Florida in March 2022. Our itinerary included Miami, Everglades National Park, the Florida Keys, and Fort Lauderdale. On our way back home, at the northeast corner of Florida, we spent two nights in St. Augustine. This post, part two, includes Everglades National Park & The Keys. Part three will include Fort Lauderdale and St. Augustine. The first part of our trip, in Miami, can be found here: a florida road trip {part one}: miami.

We hiked the Anhinga Trail and the Gumbo Limbo Trail at Everglades National Park, and then took the Flamingo Adventures Boat ride where we saw American crocodiles and manatees. We strolled amidst tropical hardwood hammocks, mahogany trees, sabal palms, cypresses and mangroves. We ate a delicious and lively dinner at Yardie Spice, a Jamaican restaurant in Homestead, with Jamaican owner J.P. hosting. We pedaled for 15 miles at Shark Valley Visitor Center and then sped over the river of grass in an air boat at Gator Park. We kayaked in a tandem in Big Cypress National Preserve where we communed with alligators and birds of all feathers and ended up bickering as we got tangled up in the mangrove trees. We visited two state parks in the Florida Keys, the nicest being Bahia Honda State Park, and shopped, strolled, nibbled and imbibed in Key West all the way to the Southernmost Point in the Continental U.S., which is 90 miles from Cuba and 150 miles from Miami. We enjoyed a Hoochie Mama Mojito and key lime pie at Paradise Restaurant in Key West as a rooster strutted his stuff near our table. Then we lounged by the pool at our hotel and waded in the seaweed-infested surf at Sombrero Beach in Marathon.

I recommend watching on YouTube for the best experience.

Our top ten things to do in the Everglades and the Florida Keys were:

10) Sombrero Beach in Marathon (Keys)
9) Big Cypress Bend Boardwalk (Big Cypress National Preserve)
8) The Anhinga Trail and the Gumbo Limbo Trail at the Ernest F. Coe Visitor Center (Everglades National Park)
7) Flamingo Adventures Boat Ride (Everglades)
6) Bahia Honda State Park (Keys)
5) Dinner (twice) at the Jamaican Yardie Spice in Homestead
4) Bicycling 15 miles at Shark Valley (Everglades)
3) Kayaking in Big Cypress National Preserve with Shurr Adventures Kayaking & Eco Tours
2) Key West
1) Airboat ride through the River of Grass with our hyperbolic guide at Gator Park

our Florida road trip

Everglades National Park & Florida Keys

Thank you for watching! I invite you to subscribe to my YouTube channel.

a florida road trip {part one}: miami

wanderessence1025 May 25, 2022

We took a road trip to South Florida in March 2022. Our itinerary included Miami, Everglades National Park, the Florida Keys, and Fort Lauderdale. On our way back home, at the northeast corner of Florida, we spent two nights in St. Augustine. This post includes our time in Miami, which was my favorite part of the trip. Part two will include Everglades National Park & The Keys, and part three will include Fort Lauderdale and St. Augustine.

I first stopped at Falls Park on the Reedy in Greenville, South Carolina. I visited my youngest brother Robbie and his partner Rob at their new house in Columbus, Georgia, where we commiserated over politics, ate sushi and chile rellenos, and drank sake and margaritas. I bought beach cover-ups at Ron Jon Surf Shop in Cocoa Beach, Florida.

Falls Park on the Reedy in Greenville, SC

my brother Rob & me in Columbus, GA

Columbus, GA

Ron Jon Surf Shop in Cocoa Beach, FL

I met Mike at the Miami Airport and we strolled through the Art Deco Historic District on South Beach, saw an adorable pink lifeguard tower, and spent a feisty evening on Calle Ocho in Little Havana among roosters and coffee stores. Mike puffed on a cigar at Guantanamera. We immersed ourselves at Wynwood Walls, an outdoor museum of funky international street art. We wandered among orchids, coral trees, palms, cyads, and a rainforest at Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden. We spent a barefoot morning lollygagging on South Beach, admiring the colorful art deco lifeguard stands then spent the afternoon basking in the sun at Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park. We returned to Little Havana for another night of Cuban food and a history lesson on the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion (April 17, 1961) and paid tribute at the Eternal Torch in Honor of the 2506^th Brigade, many of whom lost their lives or were incarcerated in horrible conditions in Cuban prisons.

I recommend watching on YouTube for the best experience.

Our top experiences in Miami were:
7) Coconut Grove
6) Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden
5) Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park
4) Wynwood Walls
3) South Beach – the beach itself and the Art Deco lifeguard stands
2) South Beach Art Deco Historic District
1) Calle Ocho in Little Havana

our Florida road trip

Miami, The Everglades and Fort Lauderdale

Thank you for watching! I invite you to subscribe to my YouTube channel.

happy belated new year: looking ahead to twenty twenty-two

wanderessence1025 January 7, 2022

Happy belated New Year! I’ve enjoyed having my year off from blogging but I’m ready to open it up again for 2022. I didn’t accomplish anything I set out to do; instead I focused on restoring my health and trying to make the most of life while struggling through another year of pandemic.

I don’t intend to write much this year. Instead, I want to experiment with making videos of some of my travels, focusing on travels since the pandemic began and maybe some of my past travels. If I’m able to travel any this year, I’ll try to make some for those travels as well.

There’s one big caveat. I’ve never made a video before; I’ll have to learn as I go along. Since I don’t actually have much video footage, they’ll be mostly slideshow videos (with photos only) set to music. I’ll try to take more videos while traveling in the future. The only writing I’ll do is a list of my “Top 10” for a destination, and maybe a paragraph of highlights. That will be the extent of it.

Mostly, I just want to have fun and challenge myself to learn something new. 🙂

Here are some pages from my 2022 bullet journal where I plot out my year as I’d like it to be. Who knows if any of it will happen, especially with the pandemic still tearing its way through the world. We can always hope.